Editorial
It is as if we will never learn. The game is in politics. The cost is for the nation. None but Prime Minister Khadga Oli is aware of this. Having gambled at the judiciary and lost his case, he will now do so in the legislature. Aware that his constitutional powers were residual in the constitution and that the judiciary need not recognize them in interpretation, the boisterous defense of his case in public was overwhelmed by judicial instruction. The House he faces this week, he is aware, cannot be bereft of machinations and manipulations solely national in source and intent. Inevitable pressures for his resignation may be ignored, as he is aware. But the numbers game has begun for his majority count in parliament and it does not necessarily follow that his calculations of parliamentary support need hold. There are too many extraneous factors affecting the numbers not only in his own party. Where the opposition parties will be given a role matters. What, after all, is the design? Oli is aware that the design is not his. Curiously, it would seem that his detractors in parliament are in not dissimilar position. The free fall continues.
There is only one binding factor in the constitution. It is the spirit of shares in the spoils of the system that created the constitution. Oli defied this spirit on grounds of impracticability. How does one compete and agree to share the spoils with the very competitors simultaneously? That is what he is saying. His detractors are not listening. But they who chose to go by the letter of the constitution must now answer Oli along with the opposition parties who ask his opposition in the party for the constitutional legitimacy of their existence. Oli knows he has thrown a spanner here. It is the numbers game all over again. Who has the numbers in the ruling Nepal Communist Party is but one factor. Who controls the whip? Who is the boss of which party? Legitimacy reminders of the 90s, one would say. We are recalling the Congress with 36 and 74 numbers. The votes of confidence that triggered the outright purchase of parliamentarians are once again being recalled. This time though it may well be the outright purchase of the spirit and not just the letter of the constitution and not just the parliament. A curious anomaly of the prolonged political drama since the constitution was promulgated is the abject neglect of the state. Nobody believes Oli’s fervent plea that he has done the state so much good. His argument, on the other hand, that he has not been allowed to function because of the spoils system holds true somewhat. The effort to dislodge him from within the party is too blatant and has been the subject of politics too long to be covert. It is perhaps the neglect of state that is compounding his threat concepts. That he should feel publicly insecure is another anomaly of the current state. What of the public?
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